This morning's Meet the Press featured a panel discussion on moderator David Gregory's interview with Mitt Romney, and the discussion turned to whether Romney will be able to separate himself from the policies of George W. Bush, given their persistent unpopularity. The panelists were near unanimous in their agreement that Romney was being hampered by the Bush legacy; the only dissenter was Reagan education secretary Bill Bennett, who argued that "Bush did a lot of fine things," but Romney already has separated himself from Bush "by having Paul Ryan there. Paul Ryan was a critic of Bush spending and he's a critic of Obama spending."

I'm not sure how many times I'll have to write this, but I'll keep writing it for as long as I have to: Paul Ryan voted for every high-cost, deficit-exploding, debt-ballooning policy the Bush White House put in place. He voted for Bush's tax cuts on income and capital gains. He voted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He voted for the unfunded Medicare prescription drug benefit. He voted for TARP. That's a whole lot of spending (plus a whole lot of revenue reduction), and those policies tell almost the entire story of the current deficits and public debt.

BENNETT: Let’s this become unanimous. Let me just say. I don’t think we throw out the whole Bush whole eight years. We won the war in Iraq. Bush did a lot of fine things. He can separate himself from Bush policy particularly in the last couple of years. And he’s already done so by having Paul Ryan there. Paul Ryan was a critic of Bush spending and he’s a critic of Obama spending. There’s a recent survey, I just want to note, and that is they asked people would you prefer a bigger government with more services or a bigger economy with more jobs? 75 to 15, bigger economy with more jobs. Conservatives have families, they believe in families, they work. And by the way this wrap that we lack compassion, you know, for people who are suffering. Why in every survey and every study, conservatives-- self-identified conservatives give more of their time, their money, their blood and their treasures to helping people than do liberals.

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